Four MiG-29 fighter jets to join Indian navy in October

17:0609/09/2009

Two MiG-29Ks and two MiG-29KUBs were officially transferred to India earlier this year

MOSCOW, September 9 (RIA Novosti) - The first four Russian-made MiG-29K/KUB fighter jets, purchased by India for the modernized Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, will be delivered to the Indian navy in October, an Indian defense source said.

Russia and India signed a contract on January 20, 2004, stipulating the supply of 12 single-seat MiG-29Ks and four two-seat MiG-29KUBs to India as part of a $1.5 billion deal to deliver the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, currently being retrofitted in Russia for the Indian navy.

"The aircraft are expected to arrive in mid-October. They will be assembled and tested in flight. After that they will be put in service [with the Indian navy]," the source said.

The official said that as the Admiral Gorshkov is still being overhauled in Russia, the aircraft will be temporarily based on land.

The two MiG-29Ks and two MiG-29KUBs were officially transferred to India earlier this year. They were inspected by Indian technical experts and used in a five-month flight training course for the Indian pilots.

Meanwhile, Russia and India are still negotiating a new deal on the completion of the Admiral Gorshkov overhaul.

Under the original 2004 contract between Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport and the Indian Navy, work on the aircraft carrier was to have been completed in 2008.

However, Russia later claimed it had underestimated the scale and the cost of the modernization, and asked for an additional $1.2 billion, which New Delhi said was "exorbitant."

After long-running delays and disputes, India offered in February 2008 to raise the refit costs for the aircraft carrier, docked at the Sevmash shipyard in northern Russia for the past 12 years, by up to $600 million.

Russia said it was not satisfied with the proposed amount, and the issue of the additional funding remains unresolved.

Talks on the additional funding agreement are currently underway. Russia has pledged to finish the Admiral Gorshkov's overhaul as soon as possible and deliver it to India in 2012 if the additional $1.2 bln funding is provided by New Delhi.

According to Russian media, India has no alternative but to allocate the required funds, despite recent objections from the government's accounting office, because the Indian Navy desperately needs to replace its INS Viraat, which, although currently operational, is now 50 years old.

After modernization, the carrier will join the Indian Navy as INS Vikramaditya, and is expected to be seaworthy for 30 years.

The first two-seater MiG-29KUB for the Indian Navy flew on 22 January 2007 at the Gromov Flight Test Centre in Zhukovsky (35 km southeast of Moscow), Russia.

The very next day, Vishnu Som from NDTV (New Delhi Television) flew to Zhukovsky and captured images of this latest bird for the Indian Navy.

Some interesting tidbits Vishnu shared included Natasha - the sexy Russian voice warning system that features aboard the MiG-29 Fulcrum. Natasha is actually an engineer who worked on the system in the first place, when it was being developed.

She continues to work in Zhukovsky and has even voiced the voice warning system for the Indian Navy's MiG-29 variants - the single-seater K and the two-seater KUB. Vishnu commented on the quality of the welds on the MiG-29KUB, by saying there are markedly different from earlier generation MiG-29s.

There is also extensive use of composites and the rivetting & welding work seems much better. He also added that the smokeless engines on the KUB, are markedly better than on the older MiG-29s but are not completely smoke-free.

 http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20090909/156073350.html

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Russia's Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier being refitted for Indian navy

Editor's Note: The Russians are also trying to sell the Indians the new MiG-35 fighter in a run-off with the US, France, and Sweden. The Russian MiG-35 is an upagrade to the MiG-29 . The naval version of the Mig-29 is included in the sale of the Admiral Gorshkov cruiser. 

The Russians are likely to win the contract with India because they have a 40 year history with the Indian Air force (IAF), their fighter is more current 4.5 generation than the competiion and costs about two-thirds of the comepetitor's aircraft at under $40 million per unit. Of course, it's not over until the Fat Lady sings. 

    

 

Admiral Gorshkov cruiser

Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Russia’s Arkhangelsk Region will help solve the problem with the unfortunate Admiral Gorshkov cruiser. The history of the ship began during the times of the Soviet Union. The aircraft carrier was rusting in the White Sea for a long time after the break-up of the USSR. Now Russian ship-builders seem to be unable to remake the cruiser for the Indian Navy.

Russia’s major shipyard, Sevmash Enterprise, has been working on the ship for several years, to remake it into a mini cruiser for the Indian navy. The execution of the Indian order was pushed back from 2008 to 2012 due to the inaccurate evaluation of the production cost. 

Originally, the contract was evaluated at $620 million. Afterwards, India was supposed to pay $1.5 billion taking account of an additional delivery of 16 deck-based MiG-29K jets. Nowadays, the cost of the project makes up $2.5 billion. 

The cruiser was delivered to Sevmash Enterprise in the city of Severodvinsk at the end of the 1990s. The command of Russia’s Pacific Navy sold two similar vessels to China and Korea in 1994 for a very low price. The Chinese quickly made an entertainment complex from the Russian mini cruiser – the vessel still brings very good money in China. 

India evinced interest in the Admiral Gorshkov in the year 2000. It was agreed in 2003 that Russia would give away the cruiser to India for free, whereas India in its turns would place an order with Russia to remake the cruise into an aircraft-carrier. 

It later became known that the cost of the contract was considerably underestimated – that was probably the reason why India signed it so quickly. 

President Medvedev strictly ordered to complete the project for India on time. Nikolai Kalistratov, the director of Sevmash Enterprise, explained it to the president that India originally “ordered a cheap car and wanted Russia to make a Mercedes out of it.” 

Medvedev’s visit showed that the Admiral Gorshkov will never stay in Russia and that it will have to become “an expensive Mercedes” for India. 

Andrey Mikhailov
Severodvinsk
Pravda.Ru

http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/09-07-2009/108031-admiral_gorshkov-0

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